Look Up...

A recent gardening experience has reminded me that I haven’t actually mentioned any stories regarding Australian spiders on this blog. I suppose the ‘bizarre fauna of Australia’ type post is only of any interest to non- Aussies, as many of those who grow up here are not really that bothered about random encounters with the country’s various selection of often dangerous, or at the least nasty looking, arachnids. However the locals do love to tell newcomers apocryphal stories of spider attacks and ambushes, especially to foreigners. This, I have deduced through experience, is done solely to extract a terrified reaction out of said newcomer and thus a good laugh for themselves. My favourite of this type of story involves the large huntsman spider which is I think one of the more vsually shocking spiders to come across, with a span of up six inches and more. Anyway, the story involves a driver who flicks down the sun visor whilst driving, but nestled between the sun visor and the cars roof lining is a large huntsman. The spider drops from its hiding place and lands on the lap of the driver. The shock of having a large, fast moving spider and on the lap causes the driver to swerve and loose control of the car resulting in an accident. Now although this story is told across the country and is almost mythical in status, this does actually happen, and although it hasn’t happened to me (yet) it has happened to someone I know, although they managed to retain control of the car.

Luckily the Huntsman is not a particularly dangerous spider, you wouldn’t come to any adverse harm if you were attacked, however, if you happen to crash as a result of a close encounter that fact won’t be too much of a comfort. In fact the Huntsman is likely to fall you almost anywhere. They mainly live in narrow spaces between the bark of a tree and the trunk and are quite flat to allow this – this also means they are quite adept to finding their way into houses. Often I have woken to find a large black spider shape in the bedroom, kitchen or bathroom. Finding yourself in the shower only to look up once the water is running to find a Huntsman on the ceiling directly above your head can be memorable experience. They are a heavy spider and not particular good at retaining their grip on a slippery surface, say the damp piece of ceiling above a running shower. A shower under these circumstances is usually a quick shower. Another favourite Huntsman trick is to drop on you as you open an outside door. They sometimes sit half on the door and half on the door frame. When the door is opened they are dislodged, and if you are particularly unlucky and get the timing wrong, they drop right on top on you; again the shock value when this happens can be considerable.

Seems I have waffled on too much in this post, so the tale of my recent gardening encounter with an antipodean arachnid will have to wait until my next post.